Jump to content
View in the app

A better way to browse. Learn more.

Surly Horns

A full-screen app on your home screen with push notifications, badges and more.

To install this app on iOS and iPadOS
  1. Tap the Share icon in Safari
  2. Scroll the menu and tap Add to Home Screen.
  3. Tap Add in the top-right corner.
To install this app on Android
  1. Tap the 3-dot menu (⋮) in the top-right corner of the browser.
  2. Tap Add to Home screen or Install app.
  3. Confirm by tapping Install.

Featured Replies

So for the last 2 weeks, there has been a mockingbird on my property singing all night. It starts around 9:00 p.m. and goes until sun up. It flies from the roof to a tree to a neighbor's tree and back again. If I go into the backyard, it flies off. I'll stand in the backyard with a flashlight, locate the bird, shine the light on it - nothing. Just keeps on singing. Meanwhile I'm getting eaten by mosquitoes and losing sleep. I assume it's a male mockingbird looking for a mate, which I don't want it to find as that will just lead to more mockingbirds in my area. I never had mockingbirds around my house until they showed up last spring, when they started to perch on my fence and harass my dog. Is there anything I can do to get this bird to stop singing at night?

I realize it's illegal to shoot a mockingbird as it's the state bird and some book says it's a sin. Also, I already asked my husband.

  • Author
22 minutes ago, gyroprotagonist said:

lure a hawk into your backyard?

 

I spent part of Monday night walking around my backyard playing red tailed hawk sounds on my phone. No joy.

Mockingbirds don't do one thing but make music for us to enjoy.  They don't eat up people's gardens, don't nest in corncribs, they don't do one thing but sing their hearts out for us.  That's why it's a sin to kill a mockingbird.

It's saying "this is my fucking territory."  Mockingbirds are notoriously aggressive territorialists, and once they establish a domain there's not much you can do but get a bigger bird to chase it away.

However, I would consider climbing up the neighbor's tree and pissing all over it.

Oh, and post pics.

Would you say that this bird is....mocking you?  Interesting.

2 hours ago, South Austin said:

 

I had already copied this for posting before clicking on the thread.

  • Author

Monday night was walking around playing hawk sounds. Last night was using my son's super soaker water gun, blasting the yaupon tree where I thought the mockingbird was. Also trying to shoot water at the bird when it was on my 2nd story roof, resulting in drenching an upstairs window. So I guess yelling at clouds isn't far behind.

Mockingbirds are a nuisance.  They loved to destroy my Dad's tomato crop--we'd see them do it.  Big mistake making them the state bird.  They should be treated like other non-game, non-shore birds in Texas, i.e.  fair game.

Years ago one of those mean little shits kept dive bombing me from a neighbor's tree whenever I walked out the front door my house, then it would sit on the peak of my roof and mock me (/Trump).

So I got my old Red Ryder BB gun to shoot that little bastard and stung him in the ass with one shot.  It did the trick, and he stuck over on the neighbor's side of the street for the rest of the summer after that warning.

Can't hear birds singing anyway, my tinnitus drowns them out.

1 hour ago, HouTex said:

Mockingbirds are a nuisance.  They loved to destroy my Dad's tomato crop--we'd see them do it.  Big mistake making them the state bird.  They should be treated like other non-game, non-shore birds in Texas, i.e.  fair game.

Mockingbird is not protected because it is the state bird, it's protected because its a song bird.  The only unprotected birds in Texas are European starlings, English sparrows, pigoens, Ring-neck doves, and a couple of waterfowl.

Just shoot it with a bb gun. I know, I'm evil. But I like sleep.

  • Author

For that I would need a night vision rig to find the damn thing. Then a laser sight/flashlight mounted on my son's BB gun.

(Can't see shit at night.)

34 minutes ago, Jerry Callo said:

Mockingbird is not protected because it is the state bird, it's protected because its a song bird.  The only unprotected birds in Texas are European starlings, English sparrows, pigoens, Ring-neck doves, and a couple of waterfowl.

As Judge Roy Bean would say, "that's a bad law" as he rips the page from the book.

The rules/regs might have changed somewhat, but I recall that crows and some other birds also can be taken without limit if they need to be "controlled".  IIRC, if they were a "nuisance"  you could kill them and you were given wide latitude on whether a nuisance existed. 

This is what I was thinking of:  Section 64.002(c) of the Texas Parks and Wildlife Code:

(c)  A permit is not required to control yellow-headed, 
red-winged, rusty, or Brewer's blackbirds or all grackles, 
cowbirds, crows, or magpies when found committing or about to 
commit depredations on ornamental or shade trees, agricultural 
crops, livestock, or wildlife, or when concentrated in numbers and 
in a manner that constitutes a health hazard or other nuisance.

https://statutes.capitol.texas.gov/Docs/SDocs/PARKSANDWILDLIFECODE.pdf

44 minutes ago, irockalltherocks said:

For that I would need a night vision rig to find the damn thing. Then a laser sight/flashlight mounted on my son's BB gun.

(Can't see shit at night.)

Well, you know what you need to do.  Let us know how it goes. 

14 hours ago, irockalltherocks said:

For that I would need a night vision rig to find the damn thing. Then a laser sight/flashlight mounted on my son's BB gun.

That sounds fun. 

If it's singing something catchy like "Party In The USA" I don't see the problem.

They need trees to roost and build nests.  Cut down your trees.  If it roosts in an neighbor's tree, cut that down too.

Nerf guns to temporarily scare it away then a dildo for yourself during breaks? Nice

On 10/3/2018 at 11:27 AM, Jerry Callo said:

Mockingbirds don't do one thing but make music for us to enjoy.  They don't eat up people's gardens, don't nest in corncribs, they don't do one thing but sing their hearts out for us.  That's why it's a sin to kill a mockingbird.

Not actually true, they used to peck the tomatoes in my grandpa's garden all the damn time.

  • Author

f071af5c13b8926c2c3c5eca6158d9c7.jpg

Wish me luck guys. Hopefully no errant shots resulting in lawsuits from my neighbors.



Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

Seriously, shoot the Red Ryder in the vicinity of the sumbitch.  Don't have to even hit it.  5-10 shots up in the tree 2 or 3 days running will probably drive it off.  When I was a kid, we had those type Daisys and rarely if ever shot directly at birds.  But there were no birds in our yard at all just from all the bbs whizzing around.

 

What's the break barrel?

  • Author
11 hours ago, TwiceHorn said:

What's the break barrel?

Pellet gun. I've used it on rats, but the pellets go right through them if you don't hit them in the head.

13 hours ago, irockalltherocks said:

f071af5c13b8926c2c3c5eca6158d9c7.jpg

Wish me luck guys. Hopefully no errant shots resulting in lawsuits from my neighbors.



Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

So I take it the water guns didn't work, surprising.

  • Author
14 minutes ago, Irwin F Fletcher said:

So I take it the water guns didn't work, surprising.

I'm having a hard time locating his position at night, as he goes silent or flies off when I walk out to the backyard, so so far nothing has worked. The water guns work very well in daylight hours to drive the mockingbirds away from our fence.

Edited by irockalltherocks

  • Author

Fired bb’s randomly into bushes and trees on the weekend. No hits and didn’t scare him off.

Installed this on Sunday to no effect:
b9c1155301bc40ba450c184d04398fef.jpg

Last night I played male mockingbird sounds I found on YouTube. That makes him stop for awhile, but then he starts up again. This sucks.


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

On 10/5/2018 at 8:35 AM, irockalltherocks said:

Pellet gun. I've used it on rats, but the pellets go right through them if you don't hit them in the head.

Well, duh, what make model caliber?  Keep shooting the Red Ryder around him, that will probably ultimately work.

Edited by TwiceHorn

Motherfucker just chop down all your trees, boom problem solved.

2 hours ago, irockalltherocks said:

Fired bb’s randomly into bushes and trees on the weekend. 

Noone on this thread suggested this. Interesting tactic.

Join the conversation

You can post now and register later. If you have an account, sign in now to post with your account.

Guest
Reply to this topic...

Configure browser push notifications

Chrome (Android)
  1. Tap the lock icon next to the address bar.
  2. Tap Permissions → Notifications.
  3. Adjust your preference.
Chrome (Desktop)
  1. Click the padlock icon in the address bar.
  2. Select Site settings.
  3. Find Notifications and adjust your preference.